Roller skate auxiliary



Spf.29,1942. 1120811150, Em 2,297,329-

ROLLER SKATE AUXILIARY Filed May 12, 1941 BY Z www5.. ATTCBRNEY Patented Sept. 29, 1942 ROLLER SKATE AUXILIARY Joseph Robinson and Emil G. Zaug, New York, N. Y.

Application May 12, 1941, Serial No. 393,054

6 Claims.

The subject of this invention is a novel ftment for a roller skate, applicable thereto by the owner of a pair of such skates, and thereafter to form permanently a component part of each skate, where the itment is purchased in pairs thereof.

Asis well known, a roller skate is provided with shoe-clamping means adjustable relative to the fore part of the shoe, which means is tightened up to secure or aid in securing the skate to the foot. Commonly, the actuator for the clamping means is a screw having both right and left hand threads coacting with threaded male followers carried by the clamping elements at opposite sides of the skate, so that turning of the screw in one direction tightens the clamping means and turning of the screw in the opposite direction loosens the clamping means. The end of this screw adjacent to the outer side of the skate has a square end located in under the floor-plate of the skate. Due to the relatively small diameter of the screw, and its closeness to the floorplate, and its resistance to rotation for adjustment of the clamping means, a key has to be used when the screw is to be turned. This key is furnished as a loose, disconnected entity; given gratis when the skates are furnished, one key to a pair of skates. It is so frequently lost or misplaced, that neighborhood toy stores always have on hand a stock of keys, purchasable at ten or fifteen cents. These keys can be sold at this low price each, because, as is well known, they are formed from .a single steel sheet, which latter when blanked and stamped to shape includes a square-cavity socket extended at its upper end into two laterally projected wing-like handles so as to be equipped at such end with handle elements of the kind typical of an ordinary wingnut.

Whenever a skate is to be secured to the shoe of a skater, and also whenever it is to be unclamped from the shoe, the key (if it can be found; and very frequently it cannot) haslo be temporarily operatively coupledrto the screw by way of the keys socket and by way of the square end of the skate screw; then the key has to be turned, usually through more than one full revolution; and then the key has to be slipped off the screw and stored in a place which it is often futilely hoped will be remembered when next the key has to be applied to the skate for operation of the clamping means.

One object of the present invention is to obviate all the disadvantages just alluded to, by providing a novel filament according greater ease than heretofore in the adjustment of the clamping means, with this tment essentially constituting a permanently carried component of the skate and one always carried by the skate in such manner as in effect to be an inbuilt part of the skate.

Another object is to provide such a tment, and one which, while having all the advantages just noted, and while of decorative nature as to itself and so far as the general structure of the complete skate is concerned, can be manufactured at such relatively trifling cost that it can be made and sold at a fair prot even with a sales price substantially the same as that of the usually easily lost or misplaceable key.

Still another object is to provide a novel fitment as aforesaid, and one which includes an L- shaped structure, the longer leg or limb of which L constitutes the actuator or operating handle; with this structure so shaped and proportioned, and at the same time so inclusive of relatively movable parts, that, without affecting the clamping means, said handle can be set at any one of various inclinations on the skate screw, to act as a streamlining factor in regard to the general attractiveness of ensemble of all the skates parts, as to impartl an element more or less differently rakish according to the fancy or taste of the skater.

The invention will be more clearly understood, from the following detailed description of an exemplifying embodiment of the invention as now favored, as such embodiment is illustrated in the accompanying drawing; in which drawing- Fig. 1 is a side elevation of a familiar type of roller skate, showing in full-lines the well-known parts thereof, and in dot-and-dash lines the customary ankle-strap and the ordinary separable key with the latter applied to the square end of the screw; this View looking at the skate for the right foot, and so looking at that skate toward its right or outer side.

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary similar elevational view of said skate, showing the fore part thereof, and also the new tment as permanently carried by said screw.

Fig. 3 is a vertical section taken axially of the handle of the tment as the latter is arranged in Fig. 2 and looking toward such axis in the direction of the iarrow 3 of Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is a detail view, showing in elevation a member here constituting the lower part of the handle, a member which may be called the chuck (for sleeving the squared end of the skate screw), and certain parts coupling and operatiVely associ-ated with said two members.

As Will be noted from the embodiment thus shown (but which embodiment, as will be understood, is merely illustrative, and hence within the invention is capable of various modications as to shapes and proportions of the parts, their methods of connection and assembly, materials recommended, and operative elements and other features, within the limitations set by the -appended claims, which latter are to be taken as measuring the scope of protection sought), there is provided, as a new article of manufacture, a quick-action adjustment-controlling auxiliary for a roller skate which is essentially non-misplaceable because carried permanently by the skate.

Said auxiliary, it will further be noted, comprises a generally L-shaped tment including a chuck the cavity of which is shaped to receive the non-circular end of the skate screw, said chuck constituting the shorter limb of the L; a handle constituting the longer limb ofthe L; locking means for connecting the handle and chuck for rotation of the chuck -with swinging of the handle, said locking means including a series of pockets arranged in an arcuate series about the axis of rotation of the chuck as a center, and also a'detent in the nature of a tooth movable inside the handle and along the length of the latter;` ayielding means, as a spring, for normally urging the detent into one of the pockets and so acting normally to lock the handle to the chuck `for conjoint'rotation of handle and chuck; and means accessible from the exterior of the handle, as a terminal knob at the outer end of the handle, for manually rendering said locking means ineffective. Essentially, the new tment is to be permanently carried by the skate screw; and accordingly the chuck is adapted, as by equipment with a -set screw Aas shown, for permanent securement to the usual squared end of the skate screw.

Referring to the structure shown in the drawing more in detail, the L-shaped structure Aof the invention is marked generally L, the same comprising a chuck I0, and a handle II, here shown as made up, as to what may be called its outer casing, of a sleeve I2 and a shell I4.

The shell I4 is of cup shape, provided at the cup bottom, that is at the end of the shell most remote from the chuck, with a bore-like opening through which extends the outer end of a rod I5. This rod, which beyond the shell carries a tooth element I6,'lies at'its toothed end within the sleeve I2 when the parts I2 and I4 of the casing handle are assembled.

As shown such assembly is by forced t iol a reduced end portion of the .shell I4 into an end portion of the sleeve I2, as at I'I.

The outer end of the handle is yconstituted by an enlargement at the outer end of the rod I5, in the form of a pull-knob I8.

For urging the rod to advance of the tooth I6 toward the chuck, an expansile coil spring I9, sleeving the rod, is disposed within the handle casing.

The chuck-adjacent end ofthe sleeve I2 .is flattened, to provide opposite and substantially parallel at walls for standing at opposite sides of a spur-gear 20, this gear being carried by and rotatable with a square stub-shaft 2|. The gear is an inexpensive stamping, and has a central hole of square cross-section to t the shaft 2I. The shaft is riveted or headed over at the outside of that one of said walls most remote from yond the opposite wall to extend far enough into la polygonal recess in a shank or reduced portion 22 of the chuck to be therein tightly secured in any suitable way as by a forced fit.

'I'he inter-teeth spaces around the gear 20 provide an arcuate series of lock pockets for the detent constituted -by the tooth I6.

'I'he main -portion of the chuck I0 has a cavity of square cross-section, served by a set-screw 23, to take the squared end of the skate screw; such end marked S.

The skate shown is that illustrative of a familiar type of roller skate. Such skate has adjustable floor-plates P and P; hangers H and H for the forward and rear pairs of rollers R yand R; toe-clips at opposite sides of the forward floor-plate P (the near one of such clips in Fig. 1 being shown at K); and eye-tabs at opposite sides of the rear hoor-plate P (the near one of such tabs in Fig. 1 being shown at T), these tabs for having passed therethrough a leather strap W for securement about the ankle of the the chuck I0, and is prolonged sufliciently beskater. At Y is indicated the usual key.

Operation Once the new fltment is permanently attached to the screw of the skate to which it is applied, turning of the chuck I0, similarly to turn the screw and tighten or loosen the clamping means including the toe-clips K, is eiected, merely by swinging the handle II in one direction or thc other, as the case may be.

If, as is ordinarily the case, more than one revolution of the chuck is required for the desired adjustment of the clamping means, this is quickly done by back and forth swinging movements of the handle II through paths above the axis of rotation of the chuck. During each handle swing in a working direction, the knob I8 is left as shown; and during each handle swing in the opposite direction, the knob, pulled up by finger grasp against the fairly light rspring I9, breaks the lock between the handle and the chuck and allows the handle to swing relative to the chuck.

After the clamping means K has been tightened as thus explained, the handle may be quickly positioned at any desired inclination to the general fore and aft line of the skate, as indicated by the lines F of Fig. 2, to satisfy :the fancy of the skater as to the speed-away effect desired to be visually suggested by such inclination, just before he glides off to start skating. This-positioning of the handle is accomplished by a swing of the handle I I while the knob is pulled up against the spring. Withthe two tments, each at the outer side of the skate to which it is aixed, arranged at substantially the same inclination, an unusually pleasing enhancement of the general appearance of the entire skating accoutrement will be had, and one highly suggestive of ,speed and grace.

As will be understood, the construction illustrated is one in which the square stub-shaft 2| is freely rotatable relative to the handle II when the vlocking means is ineffective; vthis being provided for in the present case merely by having circular openings in the lower part of the handle through which said shaft is extended. It may also be remarked that the chuck YII) should be of such length that when tted on and secured to the skate screw S, swinging of the handle as just above described will not be hindered by too close adjacency of `the handle to the oorplate P of the skate; in the present case' the chuck being shown as served by a thin spacing collar 24 between the handle and the chuck.

As will of course be also understood, variations and modifications are possible within the scope of the invention, and parts of the improvements may be used without others.

What We claim, and desire to protect by Letters Patent of the United States, is:

1. An adjusting means for roller-skate clamps require rotation of the chuck with the handle Y and spring means for normally holding said chuck and handle in engaged relation.

2. An adjusting means for roller skate clamps comprising, a rotatable clamp-adjusting screw carried by the skate, said screw being provided with a projecting end of non-circular cross-section, an adjusting device for said screw including a chuck fitted over and secured to the projecting end of the screw and internally shaped to cause turning of the screw when the chuck is turned, a handle connected to said chuck and extending at an angle thereto, said handle including coupling means for normally connecting the handle to the chuck whereby swinging movement of the handle will rotate the chuck, resilient means for normally holding said coupling means in operative position, and means on the handle for permitting manual disengagement of the coupling means against the pressure of said resilient means.

3. In a skate, a clamp-adjusting screw, a chuck fitted over one end of the screw and secured thereto, a handle-casing free on the chuck, a toothed element fixed relatively to the chuck and located within said handle-casing, a handle mounted within the handle-casing for movement axially thereof, said handle having a detent for engagement with the toothed element, means for normally holding said detent in meshed engagement with the toothed element, said last mentioned means permitting manual axial movement of the handle to thereby disengage the detent from the toothed element.

4. In a skate, a clamp-adjusting screw, a chuck tted over one end of the screw and secured thereto, a square shaft secured to and projecting from the chuck, a handle-casing free on said square shaft, a gear on said square shaft, a handle mounted for axial movement within the handle casing, a detent on said handle, a spring within the handle casing operative against the handle for normally holding the detent in mesh with the gear, the handle being mounted within the handle casing to enable manual axial movement of said handle to disengage the detent from the gear.

5. In a skate, a clamp-adjusting screw, a chuck tted thereover and secured to the screw, a square shaft secured to and projecting from the chuck, a handle-casing free on the square shaft and extending at an angle to said shaft, a gear on the square shaft, a handle mounted for movement within the handle casing, one end of Said handle terminating in a detent for engagement with the gear and a spring within the handlecasing surrounding the handle and normally holding the same with the detent engaged with the gear but permitting manual movement of the handle against the pressure of said spring to thereby disengage the detent from the gear.

6. An adjusting means for roller skate clamps comprising, a rotatable clamp-adjusting screw, a chuck for tment thereover, said chuck having an extended shaft portion, a tubular handlecasing free on said shaft portion, a handle slidable in said handle-casing, a gear fixed on and rotatable with the shaft portion, means on the handle for engagement with the recesses between the teeth of the gear whereby arcuate movement of the handle will turn the chuck and clamp-adjusting screw, means for normally retaining the handle and gear in coupled relation, such means permitting manual movement of the handle to disengage the same from the gear to thereby permit arcuate swinging movement of the handle without turning the gear or the shaft on which it is located.

JOSEPH ROBINSON. EMIL G. ZAUG, 

